Lovers should stick to stars, spring flowers and secluded spots

A man in love is willing to do anything to win the hand of the girl he
yearns for - even pluck the stars from their courses and stick them in
her hair.

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October 28, 2013

ISSUE DATE: October 31, 1981

UPDATED: October 29, 2014 16:26 IST

Big fiddleMusic is one of the few things in a discordant world that is not discordant, although purists might turn up their noses at the cacophony of sound churned out by modern rock bands. But even this food of life can produce some embarrassing upsets.

Thomas Anthony of Kerala is a very diligent student of music, and recently having studied his subject thoroughly in private, decided to sit for the B.A. examinations. His preferred instrument is the violin, so off went Anthony to fiddle his way to a degree.

However, instead of a violin, a veena was waiting for him in the examination centre. Although the examiners might not know it, there is quite a lot of difference between a violin and a veena, and a person trained in the former would find it rather difficult to strum a tune on the latter.

Anthony explained all this to the authorities, politely, and later with his voice rising in a crescendo, but the authorities, incredibly, turned down his plea. So Anthony took the issue to the High Court, vowing to make them sing a different tune.

And they did. Judge Chandrasekhara Menon asserted that the action of the controller of examinations was neither a lapse nor an innocent mistake, and he ordered the university to pay Anthony Rs 500 as expenses and to conduct the practicals by providing the violin in two months. Said Menon, in a clinching analogy: "It is like asking a chemistry student to take the botany practicals just because facilities for the chemistry test are not readily available."

Travel bugIndia is famous for its itinerant sages, trudging their philosophical way down long and winding roads to a personal nirvana. So it is not surprising that even inanimate objects - letters, for instance - have been bitten by the travel bug. Last month, just such a leisurely odyssey, courtesy the Indian postal service, came to light.

A postcard, bearing a stamp worth nine pies - a pie was the 1/192nd part of a rupee - was addressed to the headmistress of a school in Gwalior by the Indian section of the Theosophical Society in Varanasi on August 5, 1953.

Perhaps theosophy had something to do with it, for, instead of going straight to Gwalior like a good letter, the missive set out to live a nomadic existence. In the course of its wanderings, it did get to Gwalior, but shunned a settled life - and the dustbin - and continued to other cities including Nagpur and Lucknow.

Finally, a full 28 years and one month later, the letter returned to Varanasi, possibly for a last purifying dip in the cleansing waters of the Ganga. The spiritual commentators will no doubt be driven to read into this long odyssey a metaphor of the shiftlessness of all existence, and interpret it as a call to other restless spirits.

Jail baitA man in love is willing to do anything to win the hand of the girl he yearns for - even pluck the stars from their courses and stick them in her hair. However, not everybody owns a space shuttle and prudent beloveds usually call for something more feasible, as did a girl of Raipur, Madhya Pradesh.

She told Papoo, her lover, that he could be made happy only if he fulfilled her dearest wish by arranging for the bail of her brother, an undertrial in Mandla jail. She also demanded to be taken to her brother in a car. Her lover agreed to these rather unromantic but extremely practical requests.

And so, night saw Papoo and three others prowling the city in search of a car to steal. Ultimately they found one parked outside a cinema house, broke the lock, got inside, and soon Papoo was on his way to put himself at the service of his lady.

The lady was very pleased to see that half of her demand had been fulfilled, and the five - errant knight, lady, and three retainers - reached Mandla. But here the love story came unstuck at the seams, because a magistrate who would arrange the bail could not be found, and, fearing the heavy hand of the law, the five went to Jabalpur, where Papoo left the girl and drove off into the setting sun.

The girl was arrested by the Jabalpur police, but Papoo is still at large, doubtless looking for a paramour with less taxing demands. Moral of the story: lovers should stick to stars, spring flowers and secluded spots.

Barefoot sagaOctober 2 is the day when the people and their rulers fold hands in homage to the man who was the keystone of India's struggle for independence. The focus of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi's birth anniversary celebrations is Rajghat, his Samadhi on the banks of the Yamuna in the capital.

As in every year, the powerful of the land turned up in gleaming cars and spotless khadi to bow to the presence of the Mahatma. Among them were S. B. Chavan, Union minister for planning, and V. N. Patil, deputy minister for communications.

All went well as the ministers posed with the ease of long practice before the black stone. When the spectacle ended, and the ranks of white started to break to collect slippers and other footgear left at the entrance, Chavan and Patil discovered that others had walked away in their shoes.

This was reportedly the first time that such a thing had happened in the hallowed precincts, and, after a search proved fruitless, the ministers had to walk barefoot the long distance to where their gleaming vehicles were waiting. The Mahatma must have smiled to see his disciples forced to walk barefoot for once, like the poor so dear to their hearts.

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